The on again, off again Greek rescue deal that has kept European markets in turmoil is officially off again, but that changes almost hourly so who can say? The indecision is putting downward pressure on the euro, which also puts downward pressure on gold prices as the dollar becomes a fashionable flight to safety for currency traders.

Gold was trading down $7.73 yesterday AM to $1,722.62 and silver is off $0.20 to $33.74.

If it seems like justthe other day we were talking about a deal on the Greek debt issue, it’s because we were. But that was like a whole 24 hours ago and today the European finance ministers are saying “no disbursement” and Greece is saying “no euro”, which are the polite terms I can repeat here.

Now Greece has to vote on another austerity package this weekend, which is actually a vote on whether they want to stay in the European Union. That vote, which will place in the midst of widespread labor riots and under a cloud of teargas, will influence the next meeting of Euro-zone finance ministers which is set for Feb. 15.

The bottom line is you can expect more volatility in gold prices until Europe settles down, though prices are likely to stay in a fairly narrow range. If the current price holds through the day, we’ll be down for the week but not much.

If you’re making your small, regular gold buys, keep doing that. There is not a strong buy or sell indicator in the charts and no reason to alter a disciplined investment strategy right now, even though there could be short-term volatility.

This has been a yucky week for commodities in general and, unfortunately, next week is not looking any better. Before the market can sort through the Euro-zone issues there has to be some kind of certainty one way or the other.

Looking at the rest of the economic news it seems as though Greece is keeping a lid on a global economy that is otherwise looking brighter. Whether it’s good or bad I wish they’d just get on with it over there.